Product Details

• Actors: John Amos, Michael Augustus, Simon Chuckster, Steve Cole, John Dullaghan
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: X (Mature Audiences Only)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Cinemation Industries
• VHS Release Date: February 5, 2002
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304195397
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,460 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Raw, jagged, and explosively angry, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a landmark in American independent cinema. Melvin Van Peebles directed, wrote, produced, edited, scored, and stars as Sweetback, a passive bouncer raised in a brothel. Shot guerrilla style on a starvation budget on the streets of Los Angeles, it's a violent tale of Sweetback's journey from passive acceptance to political awareness and active defiance. He becomes the target of a manhunt when he kills two cops who beat up a young black activist, and he bounces from hideout to hideout before running for the border, all the while getting more booty than Shaft and Superfly put together. The movie was so inflammatory by conservative industry standards that it was "Rated X by an All White Jury," which the ads proudly touted. The unusual mix of agitprop and exploitation is directed in a jagged style that recalls Godard and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, which Van Peebles intercuts with chanting Greek chorus-like slogans. Released independently, it was a huge hit and effectively spawned the blaxploitation genre, but none of the films that followed ever recaptured the energy, the anger, and the social politics of this breakthrough in independent cinema. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaking the mold... literally ! , December 25, 2004

By	Eddie Landsberg "10 years reviewing on Amazon... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (DVD)

The most important thing to understand about this film is that if you're getting it just because you expect to live up the expectations of its genre... you better not... in fact, that was the debate over Sweetback for years : what was it ? the world's first blaxsploitation film or the world's first black social empowerment movie, a black porno flick or deep social satire ??? B-move trash or a brilliantly inspired art movie... - - The truth is, the strength and weakness of SWEETBACK is that its really all of this, but if you're expecting it to meet the mold of any one of these genre's you'll be disappointed... and that's part of the fun of the film... getting past the shock to see the message, and the message to dig the shock... and just riding along with Sweetback (EWF's soundtrack definitely makes that part easy !) With its gritty, funky tale and soundtrack, ample booty, controversial story no doubt that there's something in it to both appease and offend just about anyone that watches it... so the best thing to do is put it like this : SWEETBACK is a genre all of its own... just sit and watch it in suspended judgement and disbelief... watch it, again and again and again... Depending upon who you are you'll either find it tasty and addictive... or... well, revolting and disgusting... whatever... the fact is when you watch it there's one thing you won't come away seeing, "Man this film reminds me of a film I've seen 100 times before..." Nope... no one really did it before Peebles, and no one (despite all the films it inspired) did it after and that's why you should see it... but again... don't expect Shaft, Rudy Ray Moore or Superfly... that's not what the film is about... and whatever you do DO NOT WATCH IF EASILY OFFENDED... Now, on with the *****ing contest ! ! !

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On the run from an all-white jury..., June 12, 2001

By	Piers (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In 1971, Melvin Van Peebles managed to get this little gem released by Cinemation Industries, a low-budget exploitation distributor and launched into theatres, consequently launching what would come to be known as Blaxpoitation at the same time. True, there were other black films before this one, but never one like it, and really, there never would be again.

Melvin van plays Sweetback, a professional stud who works live sex shows, who is picked up by the cops to help them look as though they are working on a murder case. But when, the cops stop to rough up a revolutionary, Sweetback suddenly develops revolutionary ideas of his own and beats up the cops with his own handcuffs and goes on the run. That's essentially it, and what may seem boring, dated, disgusting and/or silly to most people, was some radical stuff back in 71. [...] It's radical enough now, you ain't ever seen a film like this! During his travels, Sweetback encounters all kinds of opposition (cops, biker gangs, posses etc), sees all kinds of places in the ghetto (baptist churches, rat-infested tenements, and finally the dessert)and is subjected to all kinds of experimental film making (colour tints, subjective shots, weird angles, freeze-frames etc.)

What makes this film so different and exciting for me, is that having obviously been made with private money and many, many miles away froma studio, it can and does push the politics and revolutionary rhetoric right in your face and believe me it does! It is little wonder that Huey Newton (supposedly) made this required viewing for the Black Panther Party and that within a short time films like Shaft, Superfly and their clones were filling the cinemas on 42nd Street. Unlike the legions of films that followed this, which became more and more watered down copies of the central idea of this film (that a black man can take on his oppressors and actually win), this film is the REAL DEAL and power to van Peebles for having the guts and wherewithall to get his vision splashed across the screens.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant in spots! Questionable in others! Recommended!, October 15, 2004

By	smoothjazzandmore (Clay, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (DVD)

I finally got the chance to see this movie in 1985 after Roger Ebert gave this a glowing review calling it a "groundbreaking" film for black filmmakers. Melvin Van Peebles basically captures what life was for Black Americans in the 1970's. The only thing I questioned was the use of a kid in the opening scene (Later identified as his son, Mario). Because of the low budget, I highly doubt that you can find a better print to transfer over to DVD. Take it for what it is. It's still a very good movie.